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Tips for Starting a New Restrictive Diet (GAPS, gluten-free, etc.) with Children

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We told the kids this was going to be our “weird food week” – luckily none of them are quite old enough to crack sarcastically, “You mean weirder than normal?”

I thought our family might do the GAPS diet this Lent to see what it would do with my husband’s Crohn’s and my kids’ cradle cap/eczema, but I wasn’t really pulling it together in the weeks before Ash Wednesday. Since nobody’s symptoms are very bad (DH has no symptoms right now), our motivation for undertaking such a massive dietary change – which begins to sound much more difficult the closer you get to making it a reality – wasn’t very high.

Since we were grain-free (and I am sugar-free) for Lent anyway, I decided we’d take 7-10 days and do a “family detox,” like a pseudo made-up GAPS attempt. We started Monday of this week to make it fall between events where we had to be at other people’s houses eating food.

Here’s what we are doing (and remember, this isn’t a “real” diet, just something we’re totally making up as we go in hopes that it gives our guts a little “vacation” and does some good, somehow):

Day One: no grains, legumes, corn, dairy, potatoes, nuts, raw fruits or veggies, or sweetener of any kind. We did eat eggs, coconut flour, cooked vegs, applesauce, and meats. We had probiotics, although sadly not at every meal. We had lots of bone broth (a mug in the morning and the soup pictured above at dinner).

Day Two: same as day one except we added 24-hour fermented dairy (yogurt) back in, and some raw fruit and raw veggies.

Day Three: That’s today. We’ll see what shakes out, but it should be much like yesterday. I figure three days off all sweeteners, nuts, and most dairy are a good thing. I think? Again, just making this up!

Days Four through Ten: Continue with no grains, legumes, corn or refined sweeteners. Try to not rely on potatoes every day. Continue emphasizing bone broth as much as possible. Bring back lentils first, then other legumes, then gluten-free grains.

I am sharing this, by the way, not so that you can imitate our made-up elimination diet. There’s no science behind it, really, but it has turned out to be the equivalent of training for a big race, in a way.

I learned a LOT the first day about what I would need to do to actually make GAPS happen successfully in our home, if the time comes that we ever feel called to do that diet. It’s like when you’re training for a 5K and folks say that as long as you’ve run half the distance in practice, you’ll make the whole thing when the rubber hits the road. This is our 2.5K training.

Lessons Learned in Starting an Elimination Diet with Kids

We have been mentioning off and on for a few weeks that we were going to take a week as a family to choose to eat no grains, no sweets, no corn – so that people were ready for, “No, crackers aren’t an option with your egg salad,” and “We’re not having any desserts this week.”

My kids were really pretty cool with the idea, which surprised me, and I thought we were mostly ready to go.

What I learned on Monday was that I didn’t prepare them nearly enough.

Next time, I need to explain every part to the children:

that we’re drinking bone broth all week, even for breakfast, and how it’s important that they finish it all

that there will be no milk or yogurt or raw fruit for an entire day

that I’ll still say no to milk the second day

that we will get to eat applesauce – this was very exciting for the kids simply because we haven’t had a jar open for a while, so it was a fun treat

They were shocked when I said yogurt wasn’t a choice for snack, because our homemade yogurt is always a choice for snack. I just needed to be more specific with the kids about what we were going to do.

To make it easier on everyone, other preparations and changes I’d make in the way we went about this include:

Start on a Saturday

It was quite difficult packing lunches for my husband and second grade son, so I quickly realized that for the first few days of something like GAPS, when you really should just be having soup at every meal, it would be a ton easier for the whole family to be together all day long.

Plan every meal, every snack

Plan down to each morsel and beverage. What in the world do you make for snacks on GAPS? Seriously soup all day??? That will take some serious explaining to the kids so I don’t have anarchy on my hands if we ever try GAPS. I found that by day two, I had made a few things we could eat, but I just wasn’t prepared for all the things we were cutting out on day one.

Plan ahead

Make some basic soup the day before – a huge batch if you’re smart! Then you don’t have to worry about lunches.

Make a big batch of beef jerky – one of the few snacks my husband could pack for work when raw fruit and nuts were off the table. Plus some other snacky things we can eat, like coconut flour (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) muffins with date sugar instead of honey and Butternut Spice Bars from Healthy Snacks to Go, without the maple syrup.

Figure out how to get rid of or store your regular leftovers

All the food that you can’t eat, like cut fruit, leftover suppers, opened cheese, etc. needs to be given away, frozen or put away somewhere. The five days before you begin and your shopping trip that week need to be planned out pretty well, too, so that you don’t have a whole bunch of food staring at your that you can’t eat, and then let it go to waste.

Brainstorm activities that don’t involve food

…or that don’t make people think about food (like sitting and watching a show in the morning, which is often accompanied by some before-breakfast trail mix for my kids).

In “What Can I Eat Now? 30 Days on GAPS” Cara has a shopping list, exact meals that you can eat, and even ideas for what to do as a family that won’t make you think about food. I relied on that book to help me out, but I only cracked it open briefly last week for 5 minutes to help me shop for veggies correctly.

I didn’t really read it until the night before we were starting. (That’s dumb, by the way, hence all my “planning” lessons above, learned the hard way.) Confession: I skipped over the “activities” page thinking, “Yada, yada, I don’t need that….” and then thought about it all day Monday when we started.

She was right, I was wrong. Her book is a super resource for the practical side of the GAPS Diet book (and she even tells you exactly what pages in the GAPS book you must read if you’re too short on time to read the whole thing. Love that!).

Also from Cara – a brand-new GAPS Starter Package that rolls together all of her resources. It’s the closest you’ll get to having a chef come prepare all your food 😉 At least you’ll have everything you’ll need to get started, in one neat package.

Why Plan Meals for Special Diets?

Of course, a little recipe organization and meal planning is good for those of you who are eating whatever they want, too.

I visited a friend today and remarked on her cute chalkboard with the week’s meals listed. She started telling me how much her family likes seeing what’s coming, and then got more and more excited as she described the benefits of meal planning, which she’s only done for a couple weeks. In that SHORT amount of time, she’s already noticed:

wasting less food because she thinks about what’s in her refrigerator and plans to use it up

using food from the freezer more consciously and regularly

getting in and out of the grocery store more quickly

using more meat than usual and yet spending less

she was particularly pumped about the amount of money she is saving by shopping only once a week since she knows what to buy for all five days

I couldn’t be happier for her that she’s discovered the joys and true freedom of menu planning. And all I did was say, “Cute blackboard…that new?”

How to Get Started Menu Planning

You just gotta write it down. Once you do, you’ll be more likely to stick to your plan. Have fun with it! You could:

Use Pinterest to collect recipes.

Write a simple list on paper or in a notebook.

Buy a cute chalkboard, whiteboard, or bulletin board

Write it on the fridge with magnetic poetry (maybe I’m stretching there)

I admit, I’m still a paper and pencil person, but only because I keep saying I can’t do one more thing on the computer.

However. Whenever I do any strange diets or use a bunch of new recipes, Plan to Eat is my go-to tool. Because of the speed of the “import recipes bookmarklet,” I can just quickly drop new recipes into PTE online and my entire grocery list is auto-generated and ready when I walk into the store.

Plus, once everything is in Plan to Eat, I can drag them around the weekly planner to make things fit my real life daily schedule, make notes on my favs (and not so favs), and I’ve realized that more and more of my recipes are easier to find in my computer than my paper copies, which might end up on the counter, on my desk, or just…AWOL.

This way they’re always in my phone, and I’m ready to cook much faster.

If you’re worried about the upfront time “cost,” because you do have to get the recipes into PTE, don’t – this bookmarklet thing is so cool! It makes a pop-up window sit right next to the website you have open, and you can scroll through either place and copy and paste right into your “recipe box” on Plan to Eat. It seriously takes more time to find the recipe in my long-winded posts than it does to move it over.

A word about copyright: Bloggers and online recipe writers do work very hard to make sure they publish original and delicious recipes. Please be sure to always source exactly to the page you found the recipe, and really, best practice is to only copy the ingredients and write your own method instructions, or just link to the original and let PTE friends check it out there. That’s both legal and courteous. I can upload my own recipes whenever I want, though, because they’re mine!

If you want to check it out, PTE offers a free 30-day trial. Bet you start seeing the financial savings that fast, just like my friend did!

I’m so glad of the chance to remind you of the importance of meal planning for those of you trying an elimination diet of ANY sort.

When you’re working so hard to make changes, you have to be kind to yourself and know what you’re doing each day, or you probably won’t make it.

Have you ever done an elimination diet with kids? What makes it successful and not so painful?

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post to Health Home and Happiness books from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.

About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

I’m a Catholic wife and mother of four who wants the best of nutrition and living for her family. I believe that God calls us to be good stewards of all His gifts as we work to feed our families: time, finances, the good green earth, and of course, our healthy bodies. I'm the founder and boss lady here at Kitchen Stewardship -- welcome aboard!

19 Bites of Conversation So Far

The biggest thing I’ve learned when on a diet like this is to make sure I am still eating enough. When restricting foods it is easy to accidentally restrict calories as well! Even if you eat the same stuff over and over, a full tummy makes everyone happier, have more energy, etc. Hope you get the results you are wanting!

When we did GAPS intro for my 2-year-old son, I billed it as “Super Silly Soup Week” to my older kids, 5 and 4. Each kid got a new mug, bowl, and straw for soups, and we made sure to clear out or hide all non-legal food before we started. We did not have severe symptoms, so my plan was to stick to intro for a minimum of one week (basically a stage a day) and we made it about ten days, which I thought was pretty good! Activities were definitely key – we had a lot of special outings planned, and the applesauce and ginger tea were a big hit for snacks. I also shamelessly bribed my older two, and told them that if they stayed positive about the food and did not complain for the first half of the week, then they could go on a special outing with Daddy and get a treat while their little brother was napping (my older girls had no food-related symptoms as far as I could tell). It worked, and the whole week was a *lot* less traumatic than I had envisioned, and helped my son a lot. After intro week, all the new foods as we transitioned to full GAPS seemed like Christmas! We stayed with full GAPS for about 8 months, and are now slowly reintroducing some properly prepared grains etc. Overall, not a single day has been “easy”, but the work was well worth the results.

Just on a tangent– it’s a really bad idea to do a race, whether 5k or marathon– having never run more than half that distance recently. You may make it to the finish line but it’ll be painful. If you want that 5k to be easy (or fast) you’ll be running a lot further than that most days…

I cut out dairy for lent. I’m trying to be fairly strict with myself. (But I did give in and have some cookies that may have come into contact with dairy.. and certainly were pretty processed) The thing that it taunting me is Pizza. Oh man!

My family eats a primal diet. No grains and no added sugar with the exception of high quality dark chocolate, and we have seen significant benefits. Different benefits for each of us. My son who is 10 has a much better temperament since we switched over 11 months ago. Both my kids had cradle cap since they were babies and after eating primal for a week or so I found that the cradle cap released from their scalps. It was kind of gross for a couple days but we combed it out of the hair and even though my daughter eats grains when we eat out or at a friends we have not seen the problem return. My husband has suffered with dermatitis for decades and since cutting out grains and switching to wine instead of beer his skin is so much better. I have had ibs and other stomach issues for years but have found I only have problems if I accidentally eat something with gluten in it. So after 11 month we have it down pat. I bake grain free items on the weekends (most have dates as the sweetener or I use a very small amount of honey or maple syrup). At one point a few months ago my kids were bummed out about being primal because all their friends had great snacks in their lunches so I decided that baking grain free, low sweetened snacks was a must, to keep everyone happy and on track. I pack up meat about once a month so I am prepared to cook each day. I boil eggs on sunday night and I make sure to always have a variety of fruits , vegis, cheese sticks and nuts on hand. I do not make separate meals for anyone. I just find that more often then not the kids end up liking most meals after a few tries, or at least not complaining about them. It is a lot of work but I feel the benefits out weigh the work. I hope anyone trying to eliminate things from their diet that make them feel bad will really give it a shot because it may cure what ails them and give them a whole new way of life!

I am gearing my family on the GAPS diet. My 10-month-old baby has eczema and it has gotten pretty bad the past couple of weeks. I am also putting my 2-year-old on the diet because he is eating way too much carbs. I would like my husband on it, too, but he will be the hardest to convince. I would love to stop eating gluten, because I know I will benefit from it in the long run. But I know I will miss it! I’ve been off of dairy for the past two weeks and I also miss it, especially since we switched to raw milk not too long before that and my 2-year-old loves it.

I am going to grab “What can I eat now?” right now! and also break open my water kefir grains from Cultures for Health. I also will be roasting chickens and making bone broth tomorrow.

Baby steps! I hope this will get rid of the eczema once and for all, and replace my family’s diet into something healthier.

Hey Katie! My two kiddos also have cradle cap and mild eczema. After trying all kinds of things and making myself miserable after restricting diets, I finally broke down and started with allergy/sensitivity testing this week. We are going through our chiropractor who is certified in NAET. Have you heard of it? It’s a pretty comprehensive list of allergies and sensitivities that they are tested for. My kids had a TON of sensitivities even to things like calcium and egg mix which includes chicken. I never could understand why we weren’t getting anywhere with elimination diets and bone broth. I couldn’t figure out their allergies because there were so many and still included in the foods we were trying to heal them with, like kefir and broth, etc. I do not have any interest in cutting out foods for good. That is not sustainable for us and frankly not very healthy, in my opinion. I don’t want my kids to learn to resent food or have negative feelings towards it. Food is food and should be nourishing. Anyway, with NAET, you go through treatment over a 25 hour period and your body is “cleared” of that sensitivity. Yeast was my 4 year old’s first clearing. She had a major detox (runny nose, slept for 2 hours when we got home, slight fever) and was fine the next day. My son was even reactive to his own body, which makes sense because he is always throwing fits and sleeps horribly at night. After his treatment, he is now sleeping much better, fits have decreased, and said 5 new words the night of his treatment. I’m excited to see the progress we make from the therapy. I asked out doctor how one develops so many allergies/sensitivities. She said most people have a lot and just don’t know it. They just think that’s how life is. It is usually passed down from previous generations, like from grandparents. What they ate and their lifestyle as well as bad gut flora, gets compounded in future generations. Like epigenetics. It was all very interesting. Just wanted to pass this along to you and see if you had ever heard of it or had experience with it. I will admit, it seems very strange. It’s not modern medicine, that’s for sure, but it does seem to be doing something. God bless you, Katie! Keep up the good work on the blog! Your heart for people and your family shine through your writing. 🙂

Tara, I’m totally fascinated. I have heard of NAET but have never done it. Someday, we’ll probably get there! I can’t even believe how many different ways there are to tackle sensitivities and general digestive issues. The trickiest part is figuring out which one!! And plenty of people ahve great success with just vitamin supplementation, chiropractics, etc. Phew! Lots to learn, lots to learn – thank you so much for sharing your story! 🙂 Katie

This post couldn’t have come at a better time! I want at least some of my family to go on GAPS for a while, but am so intimidated! I decided to just ease us into it, so we’re going grain-free this month. Even though we eat a “real foods” diet anyway, the grain-free feels drastic enough for now. I’ll be referring back to your blog and the other resources you mentioned as we continue on our little journey! 🙂 Thank you for the tips!!

We started GAPS intro on Christmas. HA to me.my 16 mo has been gaps since she started solids at 9mo so no change for her but the 3yo was very upset. After being on intro for over 45 days it gets boring! And how do we continue to afford the meat? hmmm.. we have begun slipping lately. sourdough crust pizza. oops. but still no sugar except a tsp of honey when I bake coconut bread. we eat a ton of ferments too. my 3yo developed a massive staph infection rather than healing her eczema and overall I am very tired of cooking so I am not sure if this was the “cure” its touted to be.

My two-year-old had issues with the no cheese part. We did carrot sticks cooked in broth if you are ever on it and need a snack. I took them out and salted them (add melted butter if you’re doing it for a dipping sauce). They were pretty good.

Please remember that I’m just a gal who reads a lot and spends way too much time in her kitchen. I’m not a doctor, nurse, scientist, or even a real chef, and certainly the FDA hasn't evaluated anything on this blog. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please talk to your health professional (or at least your spouse) before doing anything you might think is questionable. Trust your own judgment…I can’t be liable for problems that occur from bad decisions you make based on content found here.

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